1. Field Of Invention
This invention relates to the field of educational toys, particularly to one such toy which employs the matching of geometric shapes and which is suitable for very young children, and children with visual, and/or auditory, and/or developmental disabilities.
2. Description Of The Prior Art
Most children have used or are familiar with a "form board", i.e., a toy comprising a board with a plurality of different geometric holes or recesses, such as circular, square, and triangular, which is used by inserting corresponding mating male forms with matching geometric shapes into the respective recesses. The object of the toy is to teach children spatial or shape awareness by having them insert the male forms into the correct respective recesses.
While the form board has been used for many years in various arrangements, it suffered from a number of drawbacks. First, many children have very low interest in puzzles or challenges which involve the use of spatial abilities. Second, even if the child is interested, he or she will soon tire of the form board because it is soon learned and mastered and since it does not provide any useful reward other than the minimal satisfaction of inserting a form into a recess. Third, such form boards were not especially useable by visually and/or auditorily handicapped children since they could not have any visual or auditory verification that a proper match had been made.
Various commercial adaptations of the form board have been produced. In one, sometimes termed Montessori shapes and templates, a plurality of loose female templates were provided with a plurality of corresponding mating male forms. While this arrangement, and several minor variations of it, was used by children, it suffered from most of the aforementioned disadvantages common to most form boards.
Electrical versions of form boards have also been provided. In these, the child was given a plurality of forms or shapes and a form board with matching female recesses. Correct insertion of the male forms closed a switch, which in turn provided an auditory or visual feedback response. While an improvement on the basic form board, these electrical versions suffered from lack of versatility and flexibility. Thus they were soon mastered by most children, whereupon their use diminished greatly since they presented no further challenge to the children. Also, some were very complex in construction and operation, thus providing problems of high cost, complexity, reliability, and difficulty of use.